My recent exposure to ChatGPT, a “being” without consciousness, brought me back to thinking about the Golem. Plenty of books are building on this idea, from Shulamith Ish-Kishor to Adam Mansbach, among many others. One of my latest favorites was The Golem and the Jinni by Helene Wecker. Probably because it was the latest one I read (a couple of years ago). And we remember that Golem “influenced” Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein as well. But I wanted to turn to Sefaria as one of my favorite research sources, and here are some excerpts. One seems to relate to ChatGPT almost perfectly (as well as many others): And their opposites [are the case] with a golem: As he will err in all of these, as he does not have the understanding of the wise man - as he is not whole in this dispositions and in his wisdom. So, here it goes:
Bereshit Rabbah 8:1
R’ Tanchuma in the name of R’ Banayah and R’ B’rakhyah in the name of R’ Elazar said: In the time that the Holy One created Adam Harishon, [as] a golem He created him and he was set up from [one] end of...the world and unto its [other] end – that’s what is written: “Your eyes saw my golem” [Ps 139:16].
Rabbi Dr. David Mevorach Seidenberg, from "Kabbalah and Ecology"
Indeed, Rava created a man, a golem, using forces of sanctity. Rava sent his creation before Rabbi Zeira. Rabbi Zeira would speak to him but he would not reply.
William Davidson Edition - English
‘And He blew into his nostrils’—This teaches that He stood him up as a golem stretching from earth to the firmament and then threw breath/n’shamah into him.
Rabbi Dr. David Mevorach Seidenberg, from "Kabbalah and Ecology"
A broad outer garment is called gelima , an allusion to the fact that, by wearing it, one is transformed into an amorphous golem-like figure, as his limbs are indistinguishable.
William Davidson Edition - English
R’ Tanchuma in the name of R’ Banayah and R’ B’rakhyah in the name of R’ Elazar said: In the time that the Holy One created Adam Harishon, [as] a golem He created him and he was set up from [one] end of...the world and unto its [other] end – that’s what is written: “Your eyes saw my golem”
Rabbi Dr. David Mevorach Seidenberg, from "Kabbalah and Ecology"
In the fifth hour, a golem was created. In the sixth hour, he was clothed with skin. In the seventh hour, his soul was breathed into him. In the eighth hour, he stood on his feet.
Sefaria Community Translation
Rabbeinu Yonah on Pirkei Avot 5:7:1
Seven things are [found] in a golem : Anything the form of which has not been completed is called a golem , as it is stated , "Your eyes saw my unformed limbs ; they were all recorded in Your book" -...So [too], one who knows that which is taught to him, but does not know how to build an argument on his own is called a golem - as his wisdom is not recognizable.
Sefaria Community Translation
And because of this, he is called a golem - to compare him to a tool that a craftsman has made that has the [initial] form of [its] function [but] is missing its completion and refinement....And when this form does not reach its completion, they called it a golem , to compare it to substance that is designed to receive a different form through which it will become more complete.
Sefaria Community Translation
1 גרסה נוספת1 more version
Sefer HaMiddot, Knowledge of God, Part II 3
Through the comprehension a person reaches, that the Holy One, Blessed is He, is One, and that there is no other beside Him, through this he forces the angels of heaven to form into a golem and embark
The Book of Character, trans. Simcha H.
Tractate Derekh Eretz Zuta 7:1
The reverse of these are in an uncultured man. 1 Heb. golem. Cf.
The Minor Tractates of the Talmud, trans. A. Cohen, London: Soncino Press, 1965
Rabbeinu Yonah on Pirkei Avot 5:7:4
But the golem does not do [this], but answers something before he hears [it].
Sefaria Community Translation
Rabbeinu Yonah on Pirkei Avot 5:7:3
A wise man does not speak in front of someone who is greater than him in wisdom: As he listens, is quiet and learns; and [in this way,] he [builds] wisdom - which is not the case with the golem .
Sefaria Community Translation
Earth's contribution was to provide the golem-like body pending G'd's infusing these bodies with a breath of life.
Or Hachayim, trans. Eliyahu Munk
Clearly, an angel is not like a golem, but is an intelligent being.
Eliyahu Munk, HaChut Hameshulash
Bartenura on Pirkei Avot 5:7:9
וחלופיהן בגולם – the reverse of these things, that their opposite is a Golem/clod.
Bartenura on Mishnah, trans. by Rabbi Robert Alpert, 2020
מן האדמה, the prefix ה was used here to let us know that only the choicest earth was employed in constructing this golem.
Eliyahu Munk, HaChut Hameshulash
Rabbeinu Yonah on Pirkei Avot 5:7:9
And the golem will not think about this, and it is a disgrace for him when he is defeated.
Sefaria Community Translation
Rabbeinu Yonah on Pirkei Avot 5:7:8
And this thing is from the good traits that the golem will not grasp.
Sefaria Community Translation
Rabbeinu Yonah on Pirkei Avot 5:7:10
And their opposites [are the case] with a golem : As he will err in all of these, as he does not have the understanding of the wise man - as he is not whole in this dispositions and in his wisdom.
Sefaria Community Translation
Shemirat HaLashon, Book II 11:7
As to his suspecting them of illicit relations, this was an error on Joseph's part, for by means of the Sefer Yetzirah they had created a golem in the form of a woman.)]
Shmirath Halashon by Rabbi Shraga Silverstein
Rabbeinu Yonah on Pirkei Avot 5:7:7
And the golem does not know from all of these [things].
Sefaria Community Translation
Without the vowel points, the letters are golem-like and motionless....Thus, the vowel points correspond to the soul; just as the soul is a person’s vitality and every movement a man makes is through the soul, without which he is like a golem, so the vowel points are the...vitality and soul of the letters, without which they are golem-like and have no movement or life.
Likutey Moharan Volumes 1-11, trans. by Moshe Mykoff. Breslov Research Inst., 1986-2012
Ikar Tosafot Yom Tov on Pirkei Avot 5:7:1
And so [too, the mishnah calls a golem ] a man who has intellectual virtues and virtuous character traits, yet they are not complete and do not flow in proper order.
Sefaria Community Translation
In the sixth He stood him up as a golem . In the seventh He blew breath into him. In the eighth He brought him into the Garden of Eden.
Townsend 1989 translation of Midrash Tanhuma, S. Buber Recension, edited and supplemented by R. Francis Nataf
Midrash Tanchuma Buber, Bereshit 25:1
In the sixth he made him into a golem . In the seventh he breathed the breath of life into him. In the eighth he brought him into the Garden of Eden. In the ninth he gave him the commandment.
Midrash Tanhuma, S. Buber Recension; trans. by John T. Townsend, 1989.
Rabbi Tanchuma said in the name of Rabbi Berechia in the name of Rabbi Elazar, "He was created as a golem and lay from the beginning of the world to its end."
Sefaria Community Translation
Rabbeinu Bahya, Bereshit 6:6:1
The word עשה refers to the צורה, the divine image G-d had fused with the “golem,” the inarticulate body of Man....In respect of Man’s robot-like body, inarticulate Man, the Torah used the expression דמות as if to tell us that once the צורה became part of the “golem,” it was no longer a צלם אלוקים but merely דמות אלוקים
Torah Commentary by Rabbi Bachya ben Asher, trans. Eliyahu Munk, 1998.
Midrash Tanchuma Buber, Shmini 13:1
In the sixth he stood him up as a golem . In the seventh he blew breath into him, as stated : AND HE BLEW INTO HIS NOSTRILS THE BREATH OF LIFE . In the eighth he brought him into the Garden of Eden.
Midrash Tanhuma, S. Buber Recension; trans. by John T. Townsend, 1989.
For all things have letters, but the letters on their own are golem-like and have no animation without the vowel points.
Likutey Moharan Volumes 1-11, trans. by Moshe Mykoff. Breslov Research Inst., 1986-2012
Yet the letters themselves are golem-like, without any movement or vitality, and they have no animation whatsoever.
Likutey Moharan Volumes 1-11, trans. by Moshe Mykoff. Breslov Research Inst., 1986-2012
Rabbeinu Bahya, Bereshit 2:7:1
He made him into a Golem, a man-like form lacking vital statistics G-d blew a soul of life into Adam’s nostrils from His own Holy Spirit.
Torah Commentary by Rabbi Bachya ben Asher, trans. Eliyahu Munk, 1998.
Rabbeinu Bahya, Bereshit 6:6:2
“golem” to soul, צורה, when He made Man?
Torah Commentary by Rabbi Bachya ben Asher, trans. Eliyahu Munk, 1998.
On Resurrection of the Dead 9:2:3
כשיאבד הגוף לא תאבד היא, אלא עומידת בעצמה וקיימת כמו המלאך, ונהנית וחוזה באוירו שלעולם והוא עולם הבא The sages of Greece and the sages of the West all agreed that the soul is a form, not a body or a golem
On Resurrection of the Dead, English translation by Walter Hilliger. Shehakol Inc., 2021
1 גרסה נוספת1 more version
Citing Sanhedrin 57b, Ḥakham Ẓevi rules that destruction of a golem does not constitute an act of homicide and is not prohibited because its gestation is not in the form of a “man within a man,” as evidenced...That statement, however, cannot be taken as definitive since Ḥakham Ẓevi concludes that a golem lacks status as a Jew or as a human being for other purposes as well. See also R.
Contemporary halakhic problems; by J. David Bleich, 1977-2005
Tosafot Yom Tov on Pirkei Avot 5:7:1
SEVEN THINGS IN A GOLEM . Rav : as in the phrase “ golem s of vessels”, vessels that were not finished [Kelim 12:6], which are lacking completion and final touches....Such as when a blacksmith makes the golem of a knife or sword and they acquire their form, before he sharpens, polishes, cleans, and engraves them with his usual engravings and puts the final touches on...The mishna similarly uses golem to describe a person who has a certain degree of intellect and good character, but they are not perfected and have not been acquired in the proper order—they are mixed up...The golem is not the same as the am ha`aretz , who has derech eretz [*which is only good character], and certainly not the same as the bur of 2:2 — Rambam . [*See Rav ’s commentary on mishna 10, s.v.
Tosafot Yom Tov on Avot, trans. Dov Dukhovny, 2018
Tosafot Yom Tov on Pirkei Avot 5:7:2
The mishna first mentions the seven things in a golem because he comes first chronologically....person, because it is fitting to speak of the traits of the wise, and the others will become known in either case by virtue of being opposites, for which reason the mishna says “and their opposites in a golem.... ” 222 A person is a golem before he becomes wise.
Tosafot Yom Tov on Avot, trans. Dov Dukhovny, 2018
MH 2 ‘Golem’ — legendary human figure made of clay. NH 3 cocoon. NH 4 a shapeless mass. [From גלם .] Derivatives: גֶּלֶם , גָּלמִי , גָּלְמָנוּת , גָּלְמָנִי .
Carta Jerusalem; 1st edition, 1987
Then, the letters which were golem-like become animated and become vessels with which to receive good. The same is true of the reverse, God forbid.
Likutey Moharan Volumes 1-11, trans. by Moshe Mykoff. Breslov Research Inst., 1986-2012
Ezra ben Solomon on Song of Songs 5:15:1
The reference is to the primary Talmudic source for the later Golem tradition.
Translated, and annotated by Seth Brody. Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, Mich. 1999
Unlike the other created beings, which were fashioned in one step, God created man in stages: First he was a lump of earth, a purely physical entity known by the Sages as a golem .
The Steinsaltz Tanakh - English
Ezra ben Solomon on Song of Songs 6:5:22
But for now those channels appeared as raw form [ golem ]; there was as yet no drawing forth. The channels were only preparations for the flowing springs.
Translated, and annotated by Seth Brody. Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, Mich. 1999